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Monday, 2 May 2016

Hitler the Zionist?

I always assumethat the hard left's willingness to demonise Israel is never just about
how the Israeli government behaves; I believe it to be an anti-American,
anti-capitalist thing. Consequently, I had never considered anti-Semitism to be
that big an issue, but some things I’ve read and heard recently have changed my
mind. Certain cynical alliances have altered the political landscape, to the
extent that the ‘anti-West’ thing may indeed have morphed into something
uglier. The hard left, for political reasons, decided some time ago to court
the Muslim vote; it is, sadly, axiomatic that these votes would come with a generous side-serving of anti-Semitism.

I have no
idea whether or not Ken Livingstone is an anti-Semite, but he supports Hamas
and Hezbollah and I know what they think of Jews. Although I would generally
regard him as a self-serving, publicity-hungry buffoon, his recent description
of Hitler’s initial policy as ‘Zionist’ seemed like something more sinister than mere buffoonery; it sounded like a grubby attempt to conflate Israel
and National Socialist Germany.

One might be
able to argue –as his supporters have done- that Mr Livingstone is technically
correct. At the time of the so-called Haavara Agreement (August 1933), the
National Socialists wanted the Jews out of Germany and so appeared to support
the creation of a Jewish state. But Hitler only supported that putative state
because, at the time, it was not politically viable for him to start killing
Jews; he’d get the power to do that later. Mr Livingstone’s supporters may be
right to claim that some folk in the Labour Party are using this issue to
undermine the current leader (who has a track record of consorting with
unsavoury characters), but that’s a separate point. They are arguing
(somewhat feebly) that Mr Livingstone is technically correct, but it is
not possible to argue that he is morally correct.

Hitler
‘supported’ the rights of Jews to form a Jewish state in the same way that I
would now ‘support’ Ken Livingstone’s right to go forth and multiply.

About Me

A few years ago, I promised that I would never start a blog; this is it.
On this blog, I plan to respond to real (or imagined) slights by posting coruscating put-downs of my enemies, competitors and -occasionally- friends. I also plan to maintain the acrimonious simmering of a series of longstanding grudges and petty disputes.
But mainly, the blog will faithfully record a pointless and pedestrian series of idle musings, attempted libels and ill-considered theories about popular culture, sport, politics, music and the meaning of life.
For the last couple of years, I've been writing about an album I'm recording; yes, it's nearly finished.
The views represented on this blog are not necessarily endorsed by the author, unless they are.